Tithing (if I spelled it correctly) was forced down my throat during my days at a Wisconsin Synod Lutheran parochial prison...err...I mean "school." You "had" to forfeit 10% of your money, even if you were a child and your parents so piss poor you had to live in government housing.
Of course as an adult I don't donate to charity of any kind for these reasons three;
1. The government now confiscates 40% of production, 75% of which goes to income transfers. You are a fool to donate beyond what the government mandates you do.
2. I barely have enough money as it is.
3. Most of it goes to people I don't want it to go to, who really don't need help and are really just posing as a "charitable organization" when in reality they use the charity as a means of employment.
Enjoy the decline (by not donating to charity!)
I support my church. Right now they are getting about 2% of my gross income. When I am in better shape, I hope to imcrease that. I also feel I get value back from my church.
ReplyDeleteEarlier this year I did some volunteer work for another church that is active in community service. I have no intention of joining that church or faith, but I believe in much of what they are doing. And, of course, it is my choice.
Perhaps the post title should be "Why I Don't Give Cash to Charity".
ReplyDeleteLike you, I've always abhorred the United Way liberal guilting of individuals into Tithing cash from their paychecks, using the payroll deduction. To me, it always seemed sleazy to contribute to a slush fund for charities that spend much of their time fund-raising, not not much time actually doing the things they were supposed to be doing.
The United Way has always seemed to me to be a corporate PR stunt using the paychecks of the employees to make the corporation look good.
Charity, in addition to starting at home, should also be a personal affair. I do contribute to specfic charities, with something much more valuable than cash - my time and energy. The litmus test for a charity I use is when they ask for money - I ask them if they would consider volunteer help at their offices - not in fundraising - but in building houses, delivering food to the needy, getting the vote out, or whatever it is they actually do. This sorts the Philip Rearden's of the world out right awy. They slink off muttering about "It's a tax deductable contribution" or some such rot.
C'mon Captain, what about a group like Project Prevention?
ReplyDeletewww.projectprevention.org
They give drug addicts cash if they get sterilized or get an IUD.
Cost-effective, sensible, and extremely politically incorrect.
Not to mention that 99% of the work done to raise the living standards of the poor isn't done by charities - it's been done by Edison, Gates, Ford and Rockefeller.
ReplyDeleteAs for giving, I donate a bit to Catholic Charities in my local archdiocese. They're pretty open about what they do - mostly works out to feeding the hungry, sheltering the poor - and their administrative costs are real low, around 3% of their annual budget. I can afford it, feel under a moral imperative to do it based on my beliefs, and feel good about doing it. Plus, say what you will about the ol' church, I'm pretty sure that anybody who supports anything even remotely Catholic really pisses off all the right people, ranging from the rad feminists to the gay lobby to L. Ron Hubbards heirs, you name it.
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I give to a few carefully selected charities simply because they can do 10, maybe 20 times as much good per dollar as government programs do.
ReplyDeleteI don't know where this "give whatever you want" thing started, but a tithe literally means a tenth. Maybe if people were more serious about adhering to the scriptures they claim to follow they'd track their finances better instead of just eyeballing it. That wouldn't be a bad thing, in my opinion.
ReplyDeleteI approve of what my church does with my money and nobody gets a paycheck out of it. I wouldn't give a dime to the United Way.
To address your points specifically, Captain:
1) Government spending might as well be pissed away into the wind for all the good it does. Social problems are exacerbated by government attempts to fix them, making the government a poor excuse for you not contributing where it might actually matter.
2) You make more than I do, if you're close to your $30,000 self imposed cap. It's your choice to help or not, but "I can't afford it" isn't very convincing to me.
3) So give money to organizations that do things you support. Paying drug addicts to get sterilized seems like it'd be right up your alley.
I run a not-for-profit and I agree with some of your post. First, many "charities" do nothing, they fundraise, take a cut and then move money on, they link people to existing resources, or they influence policy. Many of these charities big and small are well funded because people (like gates) only care about numbers and do not take the time to investigate deeper.
ReplyDeleteLet me give you an example, HIV/Aids testing. What happens is that they offer something ( in NYC a bus or subway pass) and the same people come week after week to get the freebies and the numbers climb but few are helped. Charter school funding is the worst and many of the individuals you named fund it. They get state and local monies like a normal school and then get more from donors on top of it. If you're outraged about taxes and charity then charter schools should peak your ire.
Now for some self promotion. The charity I run has been salary free for the past 3 years because service to the community comes first. When salary does come it's currently set at a max of 55k for over 75 hours a week, no benefits. We DIRECTLY serve the poor of NYC. We offer free healthy food for families that struggle to make ends meet and for a great deal of individuals that may never function properly in society for one reason or another. We offer basic nutritional training--we introduced a woman with 4 kids to skim milk, can you believe that? In addition, we work with kids to teach them to become advocates in their own life through urban farming and cooking. We do this because fatty food kills more people in NYC everyday than guns, domestic abuse, suicide, and drugs, combined.
We get 1/50th of our support from any government organization and the large charities that exist to donate (see above) give about the same. Our bread and butter is the $25 donation here and there and the annonomys donors that give because they want to help.
Be syndical about charities and manage your money so that you can give to what you feel is vital and pay less to the gov in taxes.
- Scott Keatley, Director
Nourishing NYC
"Nutrition for All"
Create your own charity. Donate trees. They can be carried on the books for $1 and donated for $250 to $350 installed.
ReplyDeleteNon profits like Rotary or churches can be recipients. Municipalities accept them for parks.
They are useful for fundraisers and provide health benefits. Carbon offsets, quality of life improvements and aesthetic pleasure are also derived.
Trees are good. Everybody is for trees. Who can be against trees?
Loggers hate trees, they kill them by the thousands every day.
ReplyDeleteSeriously, though, the Chinese are huge on clearcutting and deforesting all over the planet. Reforestation is key to cleaning the air, cooling the ground and providing habitat for all kinds of creatures. Crime rates drop when trees are planted in cities.